This Is Madness
by milominderbinder
Summary: Lily Evans, along with her friends Sky and Lola, and not to forget Marauders, are just about to start their seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Madness is guaranteed. JP/LE. R&R.
1. Hogwarts and Head boys

"- And don't forget to write!" Lily smiled to herself as she hopped onto the Hogwarts express. It was the 4th time her mum had said that in 10 minutes.

"I won't, Bye mum!" she called cheerily. It was the start of their seventh year and she couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts.

Lily pulled her trunk along the train looking for somewhere to sit. She saw her friends Lola and Sky in an otherwise empty compartment. Lily smiled and pulled the door open.

"Lily!" Lola said cheerily, "did you make head girl?!"

"Yes!" Lily exclaimed, as she heaved her trunk inside.

"YES! In your face Sky!" Lola shouted

"Damn it!" Sky said, digging into her pocket and handing Lola a Galleon.

"Did you bet against me making head girl, Sky?" asked Lily in a mock-offended way.

"Well, it was early in the morning, and I would pretty much have said yes to anything,"

Lola grinned evilly.

"Know what? I'm gonna buy a HUGE bag of Jelly Snakes with this galleon, and eat them reeeeeeeally slowly, RIGHT in front of you,"

Lily giggled. Everyone at school knew that Jelly snakes were both Lola and Skys' favourite food, and they would stop at no lengths to get some. It was pretty much the only thing they could agree on.

"Why is one Galleon such a big deal to you?" Sky asked Lola.

"Because I _never_ win our bets. And because they just reduced the mega packs of jelly-snakes to 8 sickles,"

Sky scowled for a moment.

Sky was a very laid back person. She was fairly pretty, but very informal, and her clothes reflected that side of her. She wore things like vest tops and low-slung baggy jeans so that you could see the top of her thong when she bent over. She liked jelly snakes and pizza and pumpkin juice, and more than anything she was a laugh. Nothing was a very big deal to her. Oh, and did I mention she was born with bright blue hair?

Lola was, there was no other word for it – loopy. Her brown hair used to be long, but it was now all different lengths as she had cut it. She was today decked out in a short orange skirt, knee length socks (one stripy and one patterned with sheep), and her trademark blue platform trainers. More than anything she loved Jelly Snakes (as we've all ready established) and handstands.

Lily had long red ringlets and emerald green eyes, and practically lived in jeans and flip-flops. Sure enough, she today wore a pair of jean shorts and red flip-flops. She loved cookie dough ice cream, weirdly enough, and more than anything else she cherished her silver locket, which she hadn't taken off since she was eleven.

"Anyway, how was your 10 days without me?" Lily asked, whilst trying (and failing) to shove her trunk onto the luggage rack.

However she did not hear Skys' reply as at that moment she spotted someone outside their compartment. Praying silently in her head that he wouldn't see her, she continued trying to get her trunk up. Unfortunately at that moment the trunk fell and made a very loud thud as it hit the compartment floor. James Potter turned around and spotted Lily. She swore under her breath as James and Sirius entered the compartment.

"Need a hand Evans?" James asked as she scowled at him.

"No thanks _Potter_" She replied, her voice sharp. He put on a mock hurt expression. She finally managed to get her trunk up and sat down quickly. Sirius quickly sat down very close next to Sky, and put his arm around the back of her seat.

James sat down next to Lily "So, Evans, have a nice summer?"

"Great; you weren't there" She snapped back.

"Hey, Evans, You'll never guess what!"

"What?" She asked tiredly. In response, James tapped his chest. Pinned to the front of his robes were two badges. One was the quiddich captain badge that he had worn for 3 years, and the other one was… a head boy badge! Lily's jaw dropped.

"Wh-W-What-but-Huh? What, You're Head Boy! How is that possible? It has to be Remus, or-or-or Anthony, or ANYONE but you!" James merely winked. She continued to gape at him for a moment, before spotting Remus Lupin outside the compartment.

"Remus!" She called, her expression softening. Of all 3 marauders (A/N: That's right, three. In my world, Peter doesn't exist), he was the only one she liked. She could tolerate Sirius, but Potter was just a pain. Remus saw them and entered. Lily, glad of a distraction, moved along so he could sit in-between her and James, who scowled.

"Congratulations on Head Girl Lily," He said kindly

"Thanks Remus. I must say I expected you to be Head Boy! I guess Dumbledore had some kind of mental breakdown or something," James looked slightly offended, but Remus just laughed and smiled.

"Thanks Lily," Then he turned to Lola "Hi," he said, smiling.

"Hi," Lola said happily.

As they sunk into a conversation, Lily looked around the compartment. Lola and Remus were talking and Sirius was trying very hard to get Sky to flirt with him. She sighed as she realised the only person left to talk to was Potter. However, Sky saved her from a silent train journey by exclaiming;

"Hey, who wants to play truth or dare?". Everyone agreed, Sirius and James quite enthusiastically, and Remus and Lily quite reluctantly.

"Ok, there are only three rules," She said about 1 minute later, once they had sat themselves in a circle. "No.1…You can't lie on a truth. No.2 You can't back out of a dare. No.3…NOTHING leaves this compartment. Unless that's part of a dare."

"Ok, Remus, you can choose first" Lily said.

"Umm, Lola, Truth or Dare"

"Dare…no, truth…no, dare!…No, definitely truth," she said.

"Ok…What is your worst fear?"

"See-saws," She said. The boys looked at her as though she was insane (which she probably was).

"Lily, Truth or Dare?" She asked.

"Truth"

"If James asked you out right now, what would you say?"

"The same thing I have been saying for 6 years; 'No, now leave me alone.' Sky?"

"Dare" she said with a grin. Lily considered for a moment, before daring her to ride Sirius up the train and back down again, shouting. He agreed a little bit too enthusiastically and slung her onto his back with a grin.

When she was back she said;

"Remus?"

He considered her for a moment before saying cautiously

"Truth."

"What is your deepest darkest secret?"

He looked at her in horror. The other two boys watched him with wide eyes, and they seemed to be having a silent communication.

"I'm sorry," he said slowly after a long moment, "But I can't tell you that."

"No backing out!" said Sky.

"I apologize for having to break the rules, but I will not share that."

"No, you have to-"

"Leave it Sky," interrupted Lily in a small voice, "This isn't just some dumb crush. It's a real life secret, and if he doesn't want to tell you and Lola then he doesn't have to. Not everyone is as open as you."

The boys gaped at her. They had no idea that she knew.

"Bu-But… W-wh-when…" Remus choked out.

"Third year. I'm not stupid, Remus," Lily replied in a kind voice, smiling at him.

There was silence for a moment, before Remus said;

"Sirius, Truth or Dare?"

And that was how it continued for most of the journey.

_______________________________________

"Ok, goodbye boys," Lily said, ushering them out of the compartment so the girls could get changed.

"Hey, why is it us that gets kicked out?!" Sirius said indignantly.

"Because it was our compartment first," Lily retorted.

"Fine," Sirius left and closed the door behind him. Once they were all changed the train was just pulling into the station.

After the sorting and dinner, Lily and James were shown to the head students common room. After mulling it over in her mind all through dinner, she had decided that seeing as Potter really was head boy, and she would try and be civil to him for the whole year. After that she never had to see him again.

"Unless you _want_ to see him," Sky had pointed out when Lily had told her the new plan. " I mean, what if, say, you started DATING him! _Then_ you would probably want to see him"

As a response Lily threw a lump of potato at her head (and missed, but that's not the point). Sky simply grinned and licked her knife.

Professor McGonagall showed them to their common room and pointed out each of their dorms, then left. James made to go inside his room, but Lily called after him.

"James," he turned around. "Listen, I just wanted to say that, since we will be spending a lot of time together this year, whether I like it or not, it would help a lot if we could get along. So I think it would be good if we turned over a new leaf this year, you know? Try and forget all that other stuff," She took his silence as a yes, smiled at him and turned toward her dorm. Just as she reached out for the door handle, he said in a small voice

"Thank you for calling me James"

Lily turned around, startled.

"Ummm… you're welcome?" She said uncertainly.

"Night, Evans" James said. Lily smiled again.

"Night James"

**122333444455555666666777777788888888999999999**

**And that was the first chapter! Not my best work by far, but i hope you enjoyed it! Now... REVIEW!**


	2. Defense and beans

**Disclaimer: I am J. K. Rowling. I own Harry Potter and have complete rights over it. **

**(Check out my reverse psychology! How sophisticated am I?)**

**Here you go, a new chapter! **

**XOxoXOxoXOxoXOxoXO**

Lily stretched. A ray of morning sunlight was filtering in through the velvet curtains of her bed, and bathing her face in warmth. She smiled happily to herself as she prepared for the day ahead.

About half an hour later she was climbing out the portrait hole.

"Finally!" came Sky's voice from down the corridor, "We've been waiting for ages!"

Lola skipped happily towards Lily and they all walked down to breakfast together, chatting about stuff that didn't matter.

They arrived slightly later than usual for breakfast, meaning that the only seats left were rather closer to the marauders than they would usually have chosen. However, they sat down without too much fuss, seeing as Lily had her new plan about James.

"Hey Sky, sleep all right?" Asked Sirius, leaning towards her and winking.

"Nope," replied Sky happily, "I was eaten by evil house elves."

It took Sirius a moment to realize she was joking.

"What've we got first Lollie?" Lily asked, once they had all recovered from their fits of laughter.

"Ummmm…" Lola rummaged around in her bag for a moment, and emerged with an already tatty piece of paper that was her time table.

"Defense," said Sky, peering over Lola's shoulder, "that should be OK. What's 'is name, Smith, seemed fair."

"Don't judge a book by its cover." Lily warned her, "He might be evil. Or he might be so wimpy that we won't learn anything at all for the whole year."

However, they soon learned that Sky's first impression of their new Professor was perfectly accurate. He was fair. He was a bit boring, but not Binns boring, a bit strict, but not McGonagall strict. He was fair.

"Ok class, the first topic we will be looking at this term is dueling," he announced to them, after he had taken the register, "We will just be looking at theory today, but hopefully in a few lessons time we'll be able to pair you off and try some practical. Please turn to page 72 in your books."

There was a bored buzz in the air as people pretended to read through a list of the century's best duels. James and Sirius were almost definitely planning something, whispering behind their hands. Lola was doodling in the margin of her text book and Sky was leaning forwards to whisper to Lily, who was one of the only people who had even attempted to read the text, but had soon given up.

It was a rather uneventful lesson, and although it was far from the worst they had had they were all glad when the bell went.

James and Sirius, who had been furiously scribbling on a piece of parchment for the last ten minutes, rushed out of the room the second the door was opened, closely followed by Remus. Lily packed her things up slightly slower, because she was still talking to Sky, and Lola didn't even notice anything had happened until the classroom was almost empty and Lily took the textbook out from under her nose.

The rest of the day passed with pretty much the same air of boredom. After tea Lily went up to the heads common room, accompanied by Lola and Sky (who weren't actually supposed be there), and they tipped their homework onto the table.

"Wonder where the Marauders are," said Sky, as they scribbled down an essay for potions.

"They must be out pranking someone" Lily replied, "They were way too quiet all day."

Lola and Sky agreed and they went back to their homework.

"Mines an inch short," said Lola about 10 minutes later, "But I already did the conclusion. Oh well. Slughorn won't mind, will he?"

"Nah," said Lily "Right, defense should be easy. We can do the rest tomorrow. Get your textbooks out." They all grabbed their books and opened them to the right page. Lola and Sky began to read through for likely-looking paragraphs, but Lily stopped, and picked up a piece of paper that had fallen out of hers. It was covered in the untidy scrawl she recognized to belong to James Potter.

"Hey guys, look at this." She said, passing them the note.

It read:

**XOxoXOxoXOxoXOxoXO**

**Hee hee hee hee hee... **

**Aren't i nice? I gave you a lovely cliffhanger on the second chapter! **

**If you review, i write faster! (Hint, hint) **

**I also sent Cyber-Muffins to people who sent me nice reviews! (And i will send flesh eating slugs to people who send me nasty ones, so beware) **

**XxXxX**


	3. James Potter and weirdness

**Disclaimer:I dont own Harry Potter. (sniff, sniff) However, J., if you're reding this, my birthday is February 4th! (Hint, hint)**

**Hello! That's right, I'm back with another chapter! I've decided I'm going to try and update every weekend. Does that sound fair? This way I can write the chapter in various Maths/Spanish/Geography lessons, then type it up at the weekend and post it. Check me out, i actually planned something! Anyway, I would hate to keep you in any more suspense, so without further ado...**

**XOxoXOxoXOxoXOxo**

It said:

_Lily_

Lola read it aloud and then looked up at Sky, who shrugged.

"That's all it says," said Sky.

"What are you talking about?" Said Lily, leaning over to look at it, "But…but, I just saw it! It didn't just say Lily! I read it!"

Lola looked thoughtful. "You know," she said, "there are spells that can make things disappear."

"No duh," said Sky mockingly.

"I don't understand!" said Lily, "it was this note, it said-" but she was cut off by the sound of the portrait hole opening. 'Crap' she mouthed at the other two girls. That note was obviously not meant for her to see, and it was written by James potter, who was the only other one who had the password. As his footsteps approached their corner, Sky grabbed the note and sat on it.

"Hi," said James, giving the three suspicious looking girls an odd look, before disappearing up to his dorm. The moment he was gone, they burst out laughing, and by the time they had calmed down the note had been pushed out of all their minds.

"Ok" said Lily, "shall we call it a night?"

They nodded, and the rest of the night was spent trying to throw Bertie-botts-every-flavour-beans into each other's mouths (they weren't very successful).

**XOxoXOxoXOxoXOxo**

The next day they had transfiguration first. Lola and Sky sat together, and Lily sat at the desk behind them. This gave her a lot of time to think.

Today she was thinking about James Potter.

She used to hate him. Now she wasn't so sure. At the end of last year it had first hit her that maybe he wasn't as bad as she made him out to be. Just because he was a jerk at 11, doesn't mean he was still one at 17.

And lately, he had been nice to her. Normally he bombarded her with owls in the summer asking her out, over and over and over. This summer he had sent a few letters, questioning how she was, telling her tales of his summer that made her laugh out loud. And he hadn't asked her out since before Christmas.

She knew he hadn't lost interest in her, if anything he liked her more than ever, but she was beginning to think he may have taken her advice and grown up.

And that note…

Plus, it didn't hurt that he was absolutely gorgeous.

'Wait!' Lily thought, 'I did NOT just call James Potter gorgeous!'

She turned to look at him.

Maybe he was cute. The messy hair, the lop-sided grin that had won so many hearts, the captivating hazel pools that were his eyes. OK, who was she kidding; he was the most gorgeous person to ever walk the halls of Hogwarts.

She shook it off, and decided to ask the girls at break.

**XOxoXOxoXOxoXOxo**

At first break Lily, Lola and Sky were just around the corner from the courtyard, where nobody could see them. Lily was facing the other two, lounging with her legs crossed eating an apple, whilst Sky was sat leaning against the same wall that Lola was doing a handstand against. Lola's baggy cotton trousers were slowly inching their way further down her thighs, and revealed were the blue trainers that they were supposed to hide from view.

"-So, how are you feeling now?" asked an upside-down Lola.

"I dunno, I guess I'm ok. I'm just confused. I mean, this is _Potter_. I _cant_ like him. I'm not _allowed_ to like him."

"Maybe that's the problem," said Lola wisely.

"Huh?" said Lily, confused.

"You have spent 6 years convincing yourself that you hate James Potter, and now that you think you might have feelings for him, you feel like you're betraying yourself. Therefore you try to re-convince yourself that you hate him, and it's confusing you," she came out of the handstand. The other two stared at her. They never thought anything that made that much sense would come out of Lola's mouth.

"Is it just me, or did that actually_ make sense?"_ asked Sky, in fake amazement. Lola stuck out her tongue and did another handstand. Sky stuck her tongue out as well.

"Why am I friends with you two?" asked Lily jokingly.

"Because we're wonderful." Replied Sky with a perfectly straight face. Lily counted 2 seconds before they all burst out laughing.

This was how conversations between the three of them usually went. It would start out with something serious, Lola would say something blatantly obvious, Sky would mock her, Lily would shake her head at their immaturity and they would all laugh, completely forgetting what they had been discussing.

"Look, Lily, just take things slow and see how it goes." Said Sky once they had recovered, "Try living in the moment, it's fun"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," said Lily, and she resolved to just put the matter out of her mind and see what happened.

**XOxoXOxoXOxoXOxo**

**So, did you like it? I have to say I didn't, but drop a review and I'll send you a cyber-Oreo. If you dont like Oreo's you can have cake instead. Bye!**

**P.S. I wrote this when i was basically asleep at like 2am so sorry if it sucked!**


	4. Books and Ballerinas

**Disclaimer: Look, if i was J. K. Rowling i wouldn't be sat here writing lame FanFictions about my own characters. I would be out buying Millions of pounds worth of shoes...**

**Hello! Yesterday i looked back over all the other chapters and i was like 'wow, these are really short' so i tried to make this one really long. Only then i turned off my computer screen for a second while i went to get something to eat and when i came back up my Mum had turned my computer off at the plug, hence erasing all my hard work (sniff sniff). So, i retyped everything i could remember, and then filled in the gaps, but it's still not as long as it was before. My apologies, but if you want to blame anyone blame my Mum. Actually, blame my brother, even though he had nothing to do with it. He just annoys me... **

**This chapter is dedicated to my best friend in the whole wide world Tamzin, even though she won't be reading it_,_ because it's me and her who do the _'and then my brains fell out, and then i spontaneously combusted, and then we all died a horrible fiery death.'_**

**Anyway, here is a new chapter! **

**XOxoXOxoXOxoXOxoXO**

It had been four days since they had arrived back at Hogwarts. So far the weather had been like winter, so naturally on Friday the second the sun came out Lily, Sky and Lola rushed outside.

They headed down a little bank to their favourite spot by the lake. It was hidden from view by 3 big trees, and they had it on good grounds that hardly anyone else knew it was there, so they were guaranteed no interruptions.

They crashed down onto the grass happily, chatting about a new book that Lily was reading. Lily loved it, Sky said it sounded boring, Lola thought it didn't sound very comfy. After a few minutes, Lily pulled out the book that they had been talking about and started to read it.

"Lily-y-y-y…" moaned Sky, "you're being boring."

When Lily didn't respond Sky leant over her shoulder and read a few lines with her.

"Yup, it's boring. So, I will save you." Sky whipped the book out of Lily's hands.

"Sky, give it back!"

"I'm saving you! You might die of boredom!"

"Give it here a second," said Lola. She grabbed the book off Sky and sat on it. "Nope, It's not very comfy" She handed it back.

Sky and Lily exchanged glances. Sometimes they didn't know what was going on inside that girl's head.

Suddenly, somewhere near the castle a loud sound was heard, similar to a gunshot. It wasn't unusual for loud noises to be heard from the school, but on this occasion Sky seemed to think it would be appropriate to die. She clutched her chest and pretended to choke.

"Avenge… My... Death…" she cried theatrically, before sinking to the ground and curling up in a twitching heap. It was quite a good performance, but her laughing eyes gave her away.

"Oh get up you loon," said Lily, grinning.

Several minutes of complete bordom followed.

"So..." said Sky.

"And then my brains fell out," said Lola boredly.

"Whilst I spontaneously combusted," replied Sky.

"And we all died a horrible fiery death," Lily, finished, grinning.

"Anyway, what's up?" Sky asked.

"The sky."

"Allow me to rephrase that as; what is happening in your life that you have neglected to mention when we have hung out basically all the time"

"Oh... Not much"

--

The next day, much to the relief of the students, was Saturday. For Lola, Sky and Lily it was also the reincarnation of 'Me Time'

'Me Time' was an invention of the girls that happened every Hogwarts Saturday for about 2 hours. It took place in the room of requirement, and was basically a few hours in which they could do whatever they wanted.

Lola liked to Meditate and do Yoga. When the room appeared it had a corner filled with candles and cushions where she could do just that. From time to time she just lay in a large pile of pillows and daydreamed.

Sky just liked to lounge in an armchair with a book. Sometimes she browsed through magazines or wrote songs, and occasionally she would kick off her shoes and fall asleep on a sofa.

Lily did the same thing every single week. She danced. Lily loved Ballet, and had been doing it since she was 4 years old. By the time she was 11 and came to Hogwarts she was good enough to train herself from a book, so the fact that there was no Ballet club hadn't stopped her from keeping it up. By now she was astounding. The Room Of Requirement provided an amazing dance studio.

In the morning the girls raced through a large pile of Homework (so much for the teachers going easy on you the first week back), at 1 O'clock they ate lunch, and by 2 they were starting 'Me Time'.

Sky pulled out some new adventure novel and collapsed backwards onto a chair, so that her legs were draped over the top of it.

Lola pinned her crazy hair back and kicked her shoes off. She was dressed incredibly down (for her), wearing only a luminous tank top and purple leggings. She lit a scented candle and closed her eyes.

Lily was wearing baggy grey sweatpants and a plain t-shirt. She preferred to dance in whatever she had on (she hadn't worn a leotard since she was 12). She laced up her Ballet shoes and began to warm up against the barre.

She was completely unaware that she was being watched.

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office staring into a dish of water. However, rather than seeing his own reflection he saw that of Lily's. He sighed. At the moment she had not a care in the world. He watched as she spun around gracefully and sighed again.

In a few years she would give birth to the most powerful wizard to walk the earth since Merlin himself. But she would never get to see him grow up. Her life would be cut short because of the prophecy made about her child, and she had no idea. She didn't know that she was going to miss out on her son's first day of school, and she didn't know that she'd never go to his wedding. She thought she'd live to see her grandchildren.

It was heartbreaking that one with so much ambition and so much potential should have to leave this world so long before her time.

But it was unavoidable.

**XOxoXOxoXOxoXOxoXO**

**There you go! Did you like it? It wasn't my best, and i know it probably seems kind of random now, but all this will become relevant later in the story, i promise. Well, most of it at least. Some of it i just wrote because i can :P Lol.**

**You see that little button? That little one that says 'review'? I hear, if you press it, it opens the magical gateway into Hogwarts! So, you better press it and find out! If not, i dunno, you could always just leave a review and see if that opens the magical gateway to cyber-cookies. (it does)**


	5. Divination and avacado

**Disclaimer: Look, i think we have alrady established the fact that i am not J. K. Rowling. Other wise i might actually have some new ideas for Disclaimers. **

**Here you go, The new chapter 5. i hope you agree with me that it's better! To be honest, The Prank was pretty crap, wasn't it?**

There was something wrong with James.

The marauders knew what, but refused to tell anybody. He wasn't himself, and he stood around moping all the time, never joining in with his friends' antics. Sky and Lola were worried, being quite attached to all three boys (not that they'd admit that), and even Lily found herself a little anxious, although mostly annoyed because he was neglecting his head duties and dumping all the work on her.

They decided to find out what it was. They knew that Sirius was their only hope, because Remus was too loyal and James would deny that anything had changed.

Potions found them sat with determination etched onto their faces, and a plan formed in their minds.

"James!" said Lily, dragging him to one side at the end of the lesson, "can you come back to our common room with me? McGonagall gave me some stuff for us to organise for the next prefects meeting,"

James agreed half-heartedly, with an oddly wistful look in his eye, and they left.

"Remus," said Lola, walking up to him, "can you help me with something? I'm really confused about my astronomy homework, and you're the best in the year…"

Remus agreed surprisingly easily and he and Lola trooped off to the library, leaving Sirius all alone in the corridor. He didn't seem particularly happy about that, and he started off moodily to the common room, but he perked up when Sky fell into step with him.

"Hey," he said

"Hey,"

"What's up?" he asked casually

"Not much. I'm a bit worried about James,"

"Mmm,"

"It's weird for him to be so down,"

"Mmm," Sirius was obviously trying to keep his mouth shut so that he wouldn't say something he shouldn't.

"Is your mouth OK?" Sky teased.

"I dunno," said Sirius cheekily, back to his normal self "would you like to check?" He winked and puckered his lips like he was hoping for a kiss.

"Sure," Sky replied casually, and leant in. Sirius almost fainted with shock. However, just before their lips met she put a finger on his nose and said reprovingly,

"All in good time, but first," she straightened up and took her finger away, "you have to tell me what's wrong with James,"

And he looked at her, and then at her slightly pouting lips, and then told her everything.

"Wow, tough break for James," said Sky, once he had finished.

"I know. He's pretty torn up about it…Now, about that kiss you promised me…"

Half an hour later Sky entered the library, wiping smudged lip-gloss off her cheek, and gave Lola the thumbs-up.

"Cool, well, thanks Remus. I think I get it now. You've been a great help," and she hurried off to join Sky.

"Anytime," he said to her retreating back.

They ran all the way up to the heads common room and found Lily and James sat at a table almost falling asleep at the boringness of planning a meeting.

"Hey, Lily, I've finished my Astronomy homework," said Lola. Lily was not dumb so she understood that what Lola meant was 'we found out what the matter is, so make an excuse and leave.'

"Oh, brilliant, I need to borrow it. Listen, James, were not really getting anywhere with this so shall we just call it a night?"

And without waiting for his answer she rushed up to her dormitory with Sky and Lola hot on her heels.

"So?" she said eagerly once they had settled themselves on her bed.

"It's horrible," said Sky.

"It's dreadful," Lola agreed.

"I can't believe it,"

"It's absolutely completely mean,"

"It's like a-"

"OK! Ok! I get it, now just tell me what's happened," Lily exclaimed impatiently.

"Oh, right, yeah, about that,"

"Well, we can't really tell you,"

"WHAT! Why not!"

"Umm… pass"

"Yeah, we're real sorry Lils"

"You have to tell me!" Lily exclaimed, outraged.

"Sorry! I wish we could!"

In the end, Lola and Sky refused to tell her, and she stormed out in a big huff.

The next day she still hadn't forgiven them. In Herbology she refused to speak to them and went to work with some Ravenclaws prefects that she was friendly with.

After lunch she quite happily skipped off to Arithmancy while the other two headed for Divination.

In Divination Sky and Lola sat in front of the Marauders. They were supposed to be interpreting the dream diaries that they had kept for homework, but they were actually frantically scribbling down fake dreams, and then making up stupid interpretations for them. It just showed how incompetent the teacher was that she nodded and wisely agreed with all their predictions.

It wasn't until about halfway through the lesson that anything interesting happened.

Sky had just read Lola's 'dream' that she ate porridge in a magnet shop, and was halfway through telling her that it was a sure sign that she was going to break somebody's heart and have noodles for breakfast, when a ball of parchment bounced off the back of her head. She turned around to the Marauders and said;

"What? I was in the middle of making a very important prediction!"

Sirius winked at her and James said,

"why aren't you talking to Lily? She's been ignoring you all day,"

"Oh," said Lola, "She's just annoyed because I won't tell her what was in this letter I got the other day,"

Sky looked at her. Lola, making up a good lie and convincing people that it was true?!?! What was the world coming to?

"Why won't you tell her?" asked James, thoroughly confused.

"Because it's from my boyfriend!"

This time it wasn't Sky who looked at her, it was James and Sirius. Who on earth would be mad enough to go out with Lola? It obviously wasn't somebody at Hogwarts. However, just as James was about to question her further the teacher came over to look at Sky's predictions.

"My dear," she said "is there any seer blood in your family? These predictions are as clear as I myself could have made them!"

"Oh," said Sky, "umm, I'm not sure. There's a family rumour that my Great Aunt Sylvia was a seer, but nobody's ever confirmed it," She winked at Lola from under the teachers arm.

"Well, this is wonderful. It's a wonder you made it all the way to my NEWT class without anyone noticing!" And then she wondered over to the next table. Lola stifled a laugh as Sky said;

"Right Lola, what's the next dream? We don't want to waste all my amazing talent's do we?"

"Umm," said Lola, "I was smelling a book when my eyes turned into shoes and the Muppets started singing the FRIENDS theme tune,"

"Oh, well that obviously means that you will eat a paperclip and soon find yourself a parent,"

The divination teacher's ears perked up.

"My dear, your predictions are so insightful,"

!""£££$$$$%%%%%^^^^^^&&&&&&&********(((((((((

Sky had rapidly become the Divination teachers favourite student, which amused her to no end. Her predictions became more and more outrageous by the day, and the divination teacher was lapping it up, occasionally saying things like 'cast your mind beyond this world, see past the boundaries of time!' and 'you are the most talented student I have ever taught! Your predictions are so perceptive'.

Lola was also deeply amused by these predictions, as they mostly involved her, and they began to fill up a large portion of the letters that she wrote to her 'boyfriend'. Nobody was quite sure whether he was real or not, although most people seemed to think that she was making it up. In all effects, she was known for being slightly delusional, and who would really be mad enough to go out with her?

Lily was struggling to keep up the silent treatment against Lola and Sky. The truth was, she wanted her best friends back. Watching them have fun without her felt almost painful, and she compromised with herself that she would make up with them at the weekend.

Sky and Lola had Divination last with the Marauders. They were still working on dream interpretation, so Lola was busy trying to remember her latest dream.

"There was an army of rubber ducks, wearing socks on their heads, and then they raced towards me at full speed, so I flew away on a chandelier,"

"Right, so that must mean that… Mmmmmmm… you will receive a pleasant surprise on your next Hogsmeade visit, but it will bring bad news,"

"Right, so what if-hey!"

Sky and Lola whipped around to snatch their bit of paper back from Sirius, but it was being held out of their reach.

"Give that back!" said Lola.

"Why should we?"

"Because it's ours,"

"So?"

"Would you give it back if we accidentally told everyone what happened to James?" asked Sky casually.

"No" said James, "because you don't _know_ what happened."

"Oh don't we?"

"No"

"Oh don't we?"

"No,"

"Oh don't we?"

"No!"

"So you're saying that if I licked my lips, e-v-e-r so slowly, Sirius wouldn't immediately tell me what your parents did."

James whipped around to face Sirius, who was trying to look inconspicuous (i.e. holding a piece of paper over his face), and said furiously,

"You told them!"

"Technically I only told Sky,"

"Yeah, but she's told Lily!"

"Actually, I haven't," said Sky, "I only told Lola. We're not stupid you know. We want you two to get together just as much as everybody else does."

"Thank god! Here's your stupid bit of paper,"

And then they turned back to their own work, just as the teacher came over to look at Sky's predictions.

"I don't know where you get your inspiration from, my dear, but these are the most accurate predictions I have ever seen!"

After Lily had admitted to wanting her friends back, she invited them to a sleepover in her dorm to apologise for her overreaction. They accepted, and by eleven O'clock that night it was in full swing. The bed had been pushed into a corner and three squashy red sleeping bags were laid on the floor. There were bowls of snacks all over the floor (many of them tipped over or empty), and Sky, Lily and Lola were all sat on their sleeping bags in their pyjamas chatting.

Also, they looked kind of creepy because they all had face masks on, made by Lola out of an avocado and some milk.

Which tasted gross, according to Sky, who they had dared to eat some. Next time they were going to try Banana and honey. That sounded a bit nicer.

"It feels like ages since we had a sleepover," said Lola, throwing a bertie-botts bean at Sky.

"That's because it is ages since we had a sleepover. The last time was at Sky's house in the summer. That was almost two months ago,"

"Well, it's a good job we're having one now then" said Sky happily, throwing a bean back at Lola.

"It's also a good job that Lily's got her own dorm, because we couldn't really have a sleepover in an empty classroom again,"

"Yeah, my hand still hurt's from that last detention,"

"Yeah,"

"So," said Lily, taking a handful of crisps, "Sky, what's happening between you and Sirius?"

"Umm, like nothing,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. We snogged a few times, but that's all. We'll probably snog a few more times, then graduate Hogwarts and never see each other again. But, that reminds me, what's going on between you and James?"

"Nothing!"

"Right," said Sky disbelievingly, but she changed the subject anyway.

"Head's up!" Lola yelled suddenly, grabbed a handful of cake and smushed it all down Lily's front.

"Lola!" Lily screamed, and grabbed her own piece, smearing it all in Lola's hair.

"Me too me too me too!" yelled Sky, grabbing a third slice and joining in what was now a fully fledged cake-war.

It took twenty minutes to run out all the ammunition. By the end of it they were all smeared in food from head to toe, as were their sleeping bags. They were quiet for a moment, and then Sky said,

"D'you want to sneak into James room and cover him with our gunkiness?"

"YES!" yelled the other two, and that is how James Potter woke up the next morning bewildered to find himself covered in food and avocado (from the face masks, remember?).

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

**TADA! Yes, i know that i combined it with another chappie to make it longer. I hope no one minds, but it just seemed that everything was really short before! **

**Gimme an 'R', Gimme an 'e', Gimme a 'v', Gimme an 'I', Gimme an 'E', Gimme a 'w'... Gimme a 'Review!**


	6. Whiskers and Guitars

**Disclaimer:La la la la la la la la la la... We all know what i'm going to say, so i won't bother. **

**hello! here, as promised, is chapter 7. It's another short one, im afraid, but i quite like it. By the way, if anybody knows the rest of the lyrics to the song that Sky sings, let me know! Also, i don't own the song, but i can't remember who does (i know, i'm hopeless).**

__

Sky and Lily were sat quite happily in the head's common room one evening. Lily was curled up on a sofa reading a book, whilst Sky was sitting upside-down in an armchair playing her guitar quietly.

Lola bounded into the room to join them. Lily raised her eyes as she spotted that Lola had whiskers drawn onto her cheeks in a red marker pen.

"Do I want to know?" she asked, as Sky laughed her head off. Lola smiled and said,

"Mouw."** (A/N Imagine the noise Gary the snail makes in Spongebob Squarepants) **

"Sure," said Lily exasperatedly, and turned back to her book.

"Where were you?" Sky asked Lola, plucking slowly at the strings of the guitar.

"Just sending a letter," Lola replied brightly, flinging herself onto the floor by the fire.

"Wanna hear a song?" asked Sky.

"NO!" the other two replied, grinning.

Sky never actually played them songs, she just asked if they wanted to hear a song and then told them too bad.

"Good," said Sky, "because I wanted to talk to both of you."

"What about?" asked Lola absentmindedly.

"Just about how Lily is head over heels for James."

"SKY!"

"What? Oh come on, it is so obvious."

Lily looked angry and disgusted, but not quite as much as she might have a week ago.

"I seriously am not!"

"Seriously?" said Lola.

"Well, I guess… I've just been trying so hard not to love him… That I just can't."

"OK," said Sky, "there's got to be a song in that."

She plucked her guitar experimentally for a moment,

_I've been trying hard not to love you, but I still do…_

"no, wait, that's not right,"

She plucked for a few moments again, before singing,

_I've been trying so hard to hate you, but I love you anyway, _

"No, still not,"

She strummed a few chords before breaking out in a grin,

_I've been trying so hard not to love you but I love you anyway, _

_And it's unbelievably hard to love you but I love you anyway, _

she carried on singing, and Lola and Lily marvelled in the way she could just make up a song on the spot.

They both clapped when she was done and then they all started laughing.

#####

At 8:00 pm on Saturday the 12th of October at Hogwarts, a lot of people were in a lot of places.

James Potter was out by the lake. He was insanely bored, so instead of finding his friends he decided to count how many branches were on the tree he was sat under. There were 99.

'That' Thought James 'Is a lot of branches for one little tree.' Only he didn't think that. If he was anyone else he would probably be thinking that, but he was James Potter, so instead he was thinking

'The way the sun bounces off her amber hair, the way her emerald eyes light up when she laughs…'

Sirius Black was in the Library. That's right, he was in the library. He wasn't bound, gagged, or under the influence of any sort of potion either. He was sat in the corner researching a spell that could change your eye-colour and trying to look up Mary Willis' skirt. naturally he was focusing on the latter.

In the Gryffindor common room, a girl called Eesha could be found waiting for her boyfriend to come down. As it turned out, Eesha's boyfriend was being held up by the girl currently attached to his mouth, which would cause a lot of yelling later, and would end up with somebody's nose falling off.

Sky Blue and Lola Cassidy were sat in the heads common room. They had snuck in to see Lily, but got diverted when Sky tripped over a table because she wasn't wearing her new glasses. She said they were ugly, but in fact they were beautiful. They had thick sapphire coloured arms with little flecks of gold in them and rectangular lenses and had cost her father a great deal.

"It is a very bad waste for you not to wear them." Lola had said "Because they look beautiful and they cost a fortune and you can't see properly without them"

So Sky had grudgingly put them on and discovered that she could see the things in the distance as less than colourful splodges.

However, Lily Evans was not in any of these places. Neither was she down at Hagrid's, or sending a message in the Owlery, or at a party in Professor Slughorn's room, like you would expect her to be. No, Lily Evans, who had had a very confusing and tiring day, was fast asleep on her bed. She was dreaming lovely peaceful dreams of meadows where the grass turned gold when you touched it, and (though she would rather die than admit it) James Potter.

In the dream she spun around and around, laughing, her curls fanning out behind her. Her dress swished around her knees as she collapsed happily into the knee-high grass, all of which within her reach had turned the colour of barley. Suddenly the sky turned inky-blue and became dotted with silvery smudges that were stars. She lay, with James by her side, in the grass, neither speaking a word, until finally she turned her head and kissed him. And then fire-works went off in the sky.

That was where Lily was, and she would have quite happily remained there for all eternity, if she wasn't then rudely awoken by the sounds of her friends crashing up the stairs.

"Oh Lily!" came Sky's cheerful voice.

"Hey Lily! Sky's said she'll wear her glasses now!" Lola announced happily, bounding into the room.

They had been trying to get Sky to wear her glasses all week, but with no luck.

"Yeah," said Sky, "But I need to get drunk on Jelly Snakes first!" They flung the curtains open and leapt onto Lily's bed, both drawing out a large bag of treats (a.k.a. Jelly snakes). Lily grudgingly gave up all hope of sleep and moved her Teddy bear (Alby) so that they could all fit on more comfortably.

**OK, so i know that ended rather aruptly, but i am really running out of imagination. I have everything planned out once i get to chapter 16, but until then i have no ide where i am or what's happening! Oh well, i will still update next weekend, so please don't abandon me! **

**OK, i am running out of new reasons why you should Review, so i'm going to use my last, and greatest, weapon... Prepare yourselves...Here i go...**

**'gives puppy dog eyes'**

**So, review! And also, i put a poll on my profile about when you want Lily and James to get together! If you don't want any of the options send me a message and i'll add your one! Just because i love you. Seriously. I do.**


	7. Libraries and High heels

**Disclaimer: A girl stands in a room, writing lines on a huge blackboard while J. K. Rowling sits with her feet up on a desk reading 'HELLO' magazine.** 'I do not own Harry Potter' **Writes the girl.** 'I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter.' **The girl sighs, and turns to J. K. Rowling.**

**"How long do I have to do this for?" She asks exasperatedly. J. K. Looks up.**

**"Until the person reading this gets the point." The girl sighs again, and turns to you.**

**"Do you get it yet?" You consider her for a moment, then shake your head. The girl sighs for the third time and turns back to the blackboard.** 'I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter.(Etc)' **P.S. I'm the girl.**

**OK, so, after that exteremly lond disclaimer i must admit that i made no effort to try and update last week. I'm sorry, but that's what you get when you don't review! Anyway, there will be no update next week either i'm afraid, as I will be in Germany! It's a school trip, it should be great! We're going to a chocolate museum! **

**This chapter is dedicated to 'cosmos is a happy moose' for reviewing!**

####

Lily was in the library. It was Saturday, and after a particularly hard hour of dancing she had left Sky and Lola in their dorm, painting each other's nails, to come and find a new book.

Lily loved the library. It was one of the few places she felt completely at home and relaxed. She always earned a smile from Madam Pince when she came in, something that not many people could do.

The library was huge. The ceiling must have reached past two floors, and the shelves stretched up, almost reaching it. Books covered almost every shelf, with the exception of a few, of which all the books were constantly checked out (such as Quidditch). Some shelves had not been touched for so long that dust lay on them inch thick.

One of the shelves at the back of the library was like this.

It was a completely unique area, unlike anything else in the library. Two book cases were at a right-angle to each other, and both pushed up against a wall, so that they formed a box. Most people just presumed that there was nothing in the small square that was bordered off. Lily, however, knew different.

She had stumbled across this secret in her first year, and had been visiting it every week since.

There was a very small gap in-between one of the shelves and the wall. It was a squeeze for Lily to get through, but it was worth it. The small corner became her sanctuary.

There was a chair propped up against the wall, but other than that it was unfurnished. But this didn't bother Lily, she wasn't there for the décor. She was there for the books.

All the best books in the world were hidden along the backs of these shelves. Books explaining secrets that the Marauders would kill to know. Thrilling adventure stories that Sky would read a hundred times. Romantic fairy tales that made the hours go by like seconds when you were reading them.

And only Lily knew about it.

On this particular day she took her usual route through the book cases. She said hello to Madam Pince, who smiled back. She cut through the potions section, skirted around a shelf of Charms books, passed by Transfiguration as though it was invisible, and, checking that there was no-one around, forced herself through the gap and into her hideaway.

She was still in her dance wear (AKA tracksuit bottoms and a tank top), because she hadn't had the energy to bother going all the way back to her dorm to get changed after she had dropped Sky and Lola off at Gryffindor tower. She pulled out her hair band and let her long curls spiral down her back, running a hand through them. Then she dragged the chair over and pulled a book off the shelf that she had left sitting out.

She found the ribbon that she had used to mark her place and started to read, soon becoming lost in the world of princesses and heroes.

It wasn't until two hours later that she finished the book. Carefully she replaced it on the shelf where she had found it, tying her book-mark ribbon onto the back of the chair. She squeezed back through the gap, strolled happily back the way she had come, said goodbye to Madam Pince, and headed for the Gryffindor girls dorm.

It was quite a long walk, so Lily found her mind wondering. Her thoughts strayed back tot the book she had just been reading.

'I wish I was a princess' she thought, 'then it would be simple. I would be beautiful and then a handsome prince would kill a dragon and I would fall in love with him straight away and we would live happily ever after'

Yes, that sounded wonderful.

'But what,' she asked herself 'if the prince was James Potter? Would you still fall in love with him straight away?'

'Of course!' she replied to herself, 'In fairy tales there's no such thing as not falling in love with princes who kill dragons.'

Yes, that was the way in fairy tales.

'What if he was shirtless when he killed the dragon' she found herself pondering, 'that would be good. And then his hair kept getting in his eyes, so he had so shake it out. And then he would kill the dragon with one stroke of his sword, and I, the poor damsel in distress, would come over all weak in the knees at his bravery. And rather than crying in pain at the gash on his chest, he would come over and ask if I was OK. And then I would say yes, and he would kiss me.'

She shook herself, trying to rid her mind of the thought of a shirtless, bleeding James Potter kissing her. Not because it repulsed her, like it would have two months ago, but because it was far too appealing. She went back to imagining a normal prince saving her, but James Potter kept popping back up, as much as she tried to keep him out.

Thankfully, before she got really lost in her own little world and couldn't come back, she reached the portrait hole. She gave the password, slightly shaken, and scurried up to the 7th year dorm.

She didn't bother knocking, but just walked straight into the room.

"Hey Lily," said Sky, who seemed to be executing her true Gryffindor courage. She was sat on the bed, and Lola was cutting her hair. Which, considering the state of Lola's own style, Lily thought was the sort of thing people got awards for. She personally wouldn't let Lola within a mile of her hair whilst holding a pair of scissors. Especially when Lola was sticking her tongue out in concentration and there was very loud distracting music playing in the background.

"Hey," Lily replied slightly warily, turning the music down with a flick of her wand.

"Done!" Lola announced, dropping the scissors and holding a mirror up for Sky.

"Thanks Lolly," said Sky, "my hair was just too long to count as medium length anymore"

"Sky," said Lily, plopping down onto the bed, "I have a present for you."

Lily held out one of the aforementioned adventure novels from her hideaway.

"Ohh, thanks!" said Sky, turning it over to see the blurb.

Lola started to say something, but was cut off by a noise outside the door.

"-So I told him 'I am way to good for you. It is insulting that you even think I would go out with you'" There was a high pitched giggle that sounded like it was getting closer.

The door opened, and there was Mary Willis, with her side-kicks Hannah and Nadia.

"Oh," said Mary, looking down her nose at the three girls, "_you're_ in here."

Mary Willis had long blonde hair and baby-blue eyes (although Sky swore they were red naturally). She wore skirts that were more like belts, and was constantly looking down her nose at people.

Hannah was basically a badly-done clone of Mary. She too had blonde hair and blue eyes, and wore clothes that were five sizes too small, but her face was slightly less pretty (not that Mary's was that stunning).

Nadia's hair was more brown than blonde, and she had huge brown eyes rather than blue ones. She was the only muggle-born of the group, and the prettiest by far, She also, it has to be said, wore marginally more appropriate clothing than her friends.

"Lily, can we go up to your dorm," said Sky in a low voice.

"Yeah," replied Lily, glaring at the girls in the doorway.

Mary, Nadia and Hannah all stood (or maybe balanced would be a better word, considering the height of their heels) with one hand on their hip, the other dangling down, and their chests stuck out as far as they would go.

Sky glared at them with all her might as she pushed past, and they glared back. Lily and Lola followed suit, barging past, trying to knock them off their ten-inch heels.

It was quite obvious to anyone that these were two groups of girls that ought not be mixed.

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**TADA!!! Did you like it? I was re-reading my story yesterday, and i realised that i never really mentioned Mary after the first chapter, and she's going to be pretty critical to the story later on, so i thought i'd introduce her to you now. **

**REVIEW!!!! Even if it's just one word, please!!**


	8. Noodles and Predictions

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER! I do not even own these shoes. That is how little I own.**

**I know. I suck. Feel free to send me murdering reviews and cyber-yell at me. I deserve it. Meanwhile, here is the chapter.**

**122333444455555666666777777788888888999999999**

It was nearing midnight, and in the Gryffindor Girls dorm everyone was fast asleep. Everyone, that is, except Lola Cassidy. She was sat on her bed wearing her bright pink pyjama bottoms and her spotty red t-shirt being bored. After a few minutes she jumped up and bounced into Sky's bed next to her.

"Psst," she whispered, "Sky, wake up!" she gave the sleeping girl a shove. Sky burrowed further into her mess of quilts.

"Pssst! Sky!" Lola hissed, shoving her again. Sky woke with a groan and rolled over to face Lola.

"What?" she growled, still half asleep.

"I'm hungry, want to come down to the kitchens with me?."

"No," said Sky bluntly, snuggling into her pillow.

"You sure?"

"Yes. Now bugger off, I was having a dream."

Sighing, Lola leapt off the bed and headed for the door alone, dodging the slipper that came flying past her ear.

She crept down to the kitchens, where she was greeted by a plethora of friendly Elves. Lola decided she felt like noodles, and took a seat at the table.

Just as she began to dig in, the door opened to reveal none other than Remus Lupin.

"Hey," she said casually.

"Lola!" he exclaimed, "what are you doing down here?"

"Couldn't sleep," she replied, "You?"

"James and Sirius decided we should have a midnight feast, and I was selected to get the food."

Lola nodded and returned to her noodles. Remus took a seat next to her, looking uncomfortable.

"Listen…Lola…" he began, shifting in his seat.

"Yeah?" she said, looking up at him through her big brown eyes curiously.

"I was just wondering… You know…" he paused for a moment.

"What?" she asked.

"Do you… you know… have a boyfriend?" he blushed and looked down.

"Umm, yeah," she said, "he doesn't go to this school, but he's a wizard. He's from like Sweden or somewhere I think. It's kind of hard to understand what he's saying sometimes." She smiled fondly, remembering the last time she had seen him.

"Oh," said Remus. He stared at the floor, and Lola was shocked to see that he looked disappointed.

"Are you okay?" she asked, taken aback.

"Yeah," he said, making a feeble attempt at a smile.

"You sure?" she said, concerned.

"I'm fine, really, it's just… It's just these last few years I've had sort of a crush on you, that's all. But I'm fine," he blurted out.

Lola was too stunned to say anything, and simply sat staring at him. He squirmed for a moment, before accepting the welcome distraction of the house-elves carrying his food.

"Thanks," he mumbled to them, and quickly hurried out the door. Lola was snapped out of her trance by the clock striking one in the morning. She sat stunned for a moment, before remembering something

'you will break someone's heart and have noodles for breakfast.'

And that was the first one of Sky's predictions to come true.

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**I know it's really really really short, but I figured somethings better than nothing, so I just posted what I had. Good news, though! I will be updating almost every day this week! Just to say sorry for taking sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long. However, please still review!!!!!! I know i don't deserve it but... Please!!!!**


	9. Halloween and Butterbeer

**Disclaimer: I dOnT oWn HaRrY pOtTeR, i DoNt OwN hIs PaReNtS, i DoNt OwN hOgWaRtS. i DoNt OwN tHe MaRaUdErS, mOsT oF tHe TeAcHeRs ArEnT mInE EiThEr. UnDeRsTaNd? **

**Hello! As promised, here is the chapter! It's another short one, i'm afraid, but i'm just updating whatever i have when i have access to the internet. THANKYOU!!!!! To all my wonderful reviewers, you guys are epic! I send you all the cyber-hugs in the world, and without you this story would just be a file in my computers recyling bin. So, REVIEW!**

**12233344445555566666677777788888888999999999**

"OK," said Lola, "are you ready?"

Lily and Sky both nodded. They had both been lying on the grass in their little hideaway in the grounds trading chocolate frog cards when Lola had found them.

"So, last night I couldn't sleep, so I went down to the kitchen to get something to eat. And when I was down there, Remus came in to get some stuff for a midnight feast that him and James and Sirius were having. He was sort of quiet for a bit, and then he mumbled something about whether or not I had a boyfriend. So I told him yes, and he looked _really_ sad. And when I asked him what was wrong, he said that he'd had a crush on me for _years_!"

She stopped and watched their reactions.

"Wow," said Sky, startled (but not startled enough to stop her from blowing a huge bubble with her gum.)

"That's amazing," said Lily, "poor Remus. He must _really _like you. And you're in love with someone else! That's so sad for him!"

"And it's weird that in all these years he's never said anything to you," Sky chipped in "I mean, the marauders don't exactly have a reputation for being shy with the girls."

"No they don't," mumbled Lily, more to herself than to the others.

"That's not even the weirdest part," said Lola.

The other two looked at her expectantly.

"Well, when I was in the kitchens I was eating _noodles!_ And it was about one O'clock in the morning. So, if you think that the meal you eat in the morning is _breakfast_, I was technically eating _noodles_ for _breakfast_!"

They looked at her blankly.

"We're going to need more," said Lily. Lola sighed exasperatedly.

"Sky, d'you remember all those stupid predictions you made that the divination teacher loved so much? Well, the first one you ever made off the top of your head was that I would break someone's heart and eat noodles for breakfast! It came true!"

"Wow," said Lily, her eyes widening.

"It didn't _come true_," said Sky, rolling her eyes, "It wasn't a real prediction! I just made up something random to get the teacher off my back. Plus, the dream I was supposed to be interpreting wasn't even real."

"I guess," said Lola, slightly disappointed.

"It is a slightly freaky coincidence, though, isn't it," Lily reasoned.

"Yeah, I guess," Sky replied nonchalantly, propping her glasses up on her head and leaning back.

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As the days of October flew by it soon became too wet and cold to venture outside without several jackets, and Sky, Lily and Lola retreated to their other hideout; an abandoned classroom on the fourth floor. Several hogsmeade dates had already passed by, but the girls preferred to stay in the castle.

The day of Halloween fell that year on a Saturday. It was a little tradition of theirs to dress up on Halloween, and that year was no exception. However, as they had no lessons they stayed in the heads common room all day.

That year, Lola was dressed as a cat. She had drawn on whiskers, stuck cardboard ears onto an alice-band and sewn a tail onto the back of her black jeans. Lily was a vampire; she had heavy black eyeliner, fangs and a cape. Sky, ever careless, had opted for a French maid costume, complete with high heels and fishnet stockings. She lounged on the floor sipping firewhisky, watching Lily attempt to drink butterbeer with her fangs still in, and Lola get more and more hyper as she drank some sort of punch of her own concoction.

The Marauders were mysteriously absent from the common room all day, and when they returned it was to the sight of a groaning Sky with her long legs sticking up in the air right in front of them and a lot of giggling.

Once the slightly tipsy girl had got up and plonked herself into a chair, she explained to the bewildered boys that she had been trying to stand up on the table, but her heels had got caught on something and she had gone flying off. Sirius was slightly preoccupied with her outfit, and the fact that he had been able to see right up her skirt when he walked in. James was noticing that Lily got more beautiful every day, and Remus was squirming at the sight of Lola. After a few minutes they disappeared into James room.

However, as the girls simply went back to enjoying themselves, the boys had things on their mind.

Remus was wondering whether things would ever be normal again between him and Lola; they had been friends before he told her how he felt, and he wished they could be again. He hated squirming whenever he saw her, and from the glances her friends threw him, he knew she'd told them about what had happened. He wished she hadn't.

Sirius was worrying that Sky might mean more to him than he thought. It had seemed lately that he hadn't had as much time for all the other girls, and his thoughts strayed to her far too often. He had never liked a girl as more than just something to meet in a broom closet, and he'd never had an exclusive girlfriend. He wasn't supposed to feel this way.

James was just realising how much he truly loved Lily Evans, and that this year was his last chance to get her. After Hogwarts ended they would go their separate ways and maybe never see each other again. And that thought made him sadder than anything else. He hated the thought that it might be too late.

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**Dundidilun! That was my attempt to phonetically spell a noise, and as you can see, it failed. So, now that you've read my story, you must REVIEW. Or at least, I would like you to. Please. Pretty please? I'll be your friend when I'm rich and famous, I promise!**


	10. Laughter and Love

**Disclaimer: Try and sue me. I dare you. You'll lose, because it's not mine.**

**Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I left you all hanging for months, I come back and say that I'll doing regular updates again, and then I disappear off the face of the planet again!! I'm so sorry, but I've been dealing with some huge family problems lately, and combined with depression and having NO-ONE to talk to, ever, I just didn't feel like writing. But I've got an outline of the next five or so chapters, and they should be up real soon! I mean it this time! **

**Without further ado, here's the chapter!**

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It was the day before the Christmas holidays, and Lily wasn't really reading her book. She was sat in her common room occasionally turning the page, her eyes flitting back and forth across the paper. If anyone was there to watch her, it would have seemed to them that she was completely absorbed with what she was reading. But her mind was really preoccupied with dread of that night's patrol to concentrate on anything.

Normally she enjoyed patrol. There was something mystical and exciting about being out after curfew, and even if it was all above board, it was the closest she had ever gotten to breaking the rules. But tonight she had to patrol with James, and due to her current mixed feelings and confusion where he was concerned she didn't like spending any more time around him than absolutely necessary. Even more so when he was being the new, kind, mature James, because that just made it even more difficult to hate him.

Lily checked the time and with a sigh she got reluctantly out of her chair. Leaving the book on the table she exited the room, and headed off to meet James by the astronomy tower. Why they couldn't just meet at the common room was beyond her, but apparently nobody else shared her opinion.

As she arrived at the tower she was greeted by a call of, "Hi," from James. Her breath caught in her throat, and it was a moment before she could speak.

"Hey," she replied, once she was in control of her mouth again.

"Shall we?" he asked with a grin. She didn't trust herself to speak, so she merely nodded. They began their descent of the tower.

They didn't speak much. They just had to wander around the school, and check all the classrooms to make sure there wasn't anyone hiding in them.

On the third floor, they noticed that one of the disused classrooms had its door slightly ajar. Lily walked over and went in, only to be met by a sight that would rival for the most disturbing sight of her life for many years to come.

Sky and Sirius were engaged in a heated match of tonsil tennis. Sky was half sitting, half lying on the desk with Sirius on top of her. Both their ties were on the floor, along with their shoes and his shirt. All her buttons were undone, and one of his hands was up her skirt.

"Oh!" Lily yelled, putting a hand over her eyes in a feeble attempt to protect their innocence. She heard a disgusting squelchy noise and then a lot of ragged breathing as they broke apart.

"Lily, fancy meeting you here," said Sky breathlessly, not at all ashamed of having been discovered. James had just joined her in the doorway. She couldn't see, still having her eyes covered, but he was trying very hard not to laugh.

"I'm not gonna take any points off this time," Lily told them in a slightly disgusted voice. "Just... lock the door, or something..."

She turned around and fled into the corridor. James followed, still doing his best not to laugh. Once she heard the door click shut she uncovered her eyes, and glared at the grinning James. There was a moment of silent communication between them.

"It was a _little_ funny," he said. She glared even harder.

"It wasn't," she assured him.

"You couldn't see your face."

"That was my best friend! It was gross," she protested.

"They weren't even naked."

"They were close enough. Though I don't doubt you've done much worse than that with most of your girlfriends, my eyes are still innocent, and I'd rather they stayed that way."

He was still grinning, that amazing lopsided grin that she saved especially for her. She couldn't help it. It really wasn't her fault; it was the grin that made her do it. It was the grins fault, that, despite herself, she found herself smiling back at the absurdity of the situation.

His own smile widened in response, and before they knew it they were both laughing. His laugh was loud and confident. Hers started out as a reluctant giggle, but segued into complete hysterics.

They were still a little giggly when they arrived back in their common room an hour later. Because of that Lily wasn't thinking straight, and that was why she did something that she would never have done when her brain was working.

He said goodnight. Normally she would have nodded, or perhaps said 'you too,' if she were in a particularly good mood. Never, ever, would she have even considered what she did then. But as she saw the wistful, almost sad look in his eyes as they prepared to go their separate ways, her irrational side took over.

And she reached up, put one hand on his face, and kissed him on the cheek. As soon as her brain caught up with her lips, it screamed in protest. But she made no indication that she hadn't meant to do that all along, so as not to hurt his feelings. Instead she turned swiftly on her heel and walked into her room. She didn't risk looking over her shoulder, so she didn't see the look of shock and complete ecstasy that covered his face.

So instead of revelling in that when she fell onto her bed, her brain was instead left well alone to spin with the knowledge that she had finally fallen in love - with James Potter.

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**Once again, i'm SORRY it's so short! But I WILL be updating regularly again - and I mean it this time. I know this chapter wasn't very good, and I know I don't deserve them, but please... Reviews? :(**


	11. Bracelets and, err, bracelets

**Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, don't own. **

**I have nothing to say, except check out my L/J one-shot, Rain. It's a bit crappy, but kind of nice and some bits are good. Anyway, here's the chapter.**

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The next morning Lily didn't go down to the hall for breakfast. By the time she appeared for lunch almost everyone was gone for the Christmas Holidays.

She had opted to stay at school that year, along with Lola whose parents were on holiday, but it seemed as though they were the only people who had. In the face of the war, people wanted to spend as much time as possible with their families.

In fact, the Great Hall was completely empty except them and the teachers. Lily felt slightly weird; it was the first time she had seen the school this empty.

"Yummm," Lola said, filling her plate. Lily rolled her eyes and picked at her salad. She hadn't had a chance to talk to Sky before she left, so she wasn't going to talk to Lola about James before Sky got back. She wanted to tell them both together.

On Christmas morning Lily woke up with the sun. There was a large pile of presents at the bottom of her bed (actually it was Sky's bed, but she had stayed in the Gryffindor dorm that night to keep Lola company).

"Presents!" Lola cheered as soon as she woke up. Lily grinned and dived at her own pile.

They were soon munching their way through a mountain of sweets, which seemed to be all that Lily had been given. She'd got a new top from Sky and money from her parents, and then just sweets.

"Hey Lily, what's that?" asked Lola, pointing at something on the floor. It was a small parcel.

"It must have got knocked off the pile," Lily said, leaning off the edge of the bed and picking it up. She unwrapped it carefully, and out fell a little charm bracelet and a note.

Curiously she examined the bracelet. There was only one charm on it; a silver L. She picked up the note.

_Dear Lily- _

_Want the rest of the charms? You'll have to find them. _

_Here's a clue. _

_**I am hard on the outside and soft on the inside, **_

_**I am an ancient shape, and I hold things that are hard to believe, **_

_**I am more than one, and yet unique**_

_**Find me and find the next clue. **_

_I figured you could use something to do over the holidays._

_Love, James. _

Lily's jaw dropped open. He knew her far too well. She _had _to figure this out.

At dinner she wasn't eating her food. Instead she was staring at the note, frowning. Lola hadn't come up with any sensible suggestions, and neither had she.

Frustrated, she looked up and around the room. There was one other student sat at the Ravenclaw table, reading a book.

A book.

With a gasp, she leapt up and ran from the hall. Lola followed, confused. She didn't stop running until she reached the Library. Lola caught up with her standing in the entrance and put her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

"Lily" pant "what's" pant "Wrong?" pant.

"It's a book. That's the clue. So I figured it was in the library. I mean, that typically is where you find books," Lily explained.

"But there's millions of books in the library," Lola said. Lily ignored her, and began very slowly wandering the library.

Lola stayed in the entrance, wondering whether her friend had finally cracked under the pressure.

"Yes!" Lily exclaimed. Floating about a foot above one of the tables was a book. It was a book of fairy tales. She grabbed it out of the air and opened it. It was hollow. That hadn't been what she was expecting, but she shook it off.

Instead of pages, it held a scrap of parchment and another charm. This charm was a tiny silver book. Grinning she attached the charm to her bracelet. Then she picked up the note.

_**I have a face but I can't frown,**_

_**I have no mouth but make a sound,**_

_**I have hands but I can't wave,**_

_**I can't walk but I move around. **_

Lily sat down at the table silently, re-reading the note. Lola joined her. After about ten minutes Lily grinned.

"Come on," she said, getting up and walking towards the door.

"Where are we going now?" asked Lola, hurrying along behind her.

"The clock tower," Lily replied.

##

When they arrived at the clock tower the next clue didn't require any looking for; it was the only thing in the room. It sat in the middle of the floor.

Lily went and picked it up. This time the charm was a tiny red flip-flop. Lily's grin got wider and she clipped it on. James knew her too well for her own good.

Lola picked up the note this time, and read it out.

By the end of the holidays, Lily and Lola had been all over the school by James Potters riddles, and Lily's bracelet was almost full.

In the kitchens they found a charm in the shape of an ice cream, by the lake the charm resembled the squid (Lily remembered telling him on that exact spot that she would rather date the Giant Squid than him, and wondered if that's what he had been thinking as well), the Astronomy Tower, where it had been a glittery silver star, the Gryffindor common room, where they found a tiny sunflower (How did James Potter know that she thought the 'A lily for a Lily' joke was so old, and her favourite flower was sunflowers?), and finally his dorm, where on the bed there had been a tiny ballet slipper.

That one made her feel a little bad. She hadn't danced in ages, hadn't even thought about it really. She made a mental note to have a Me Time session right after Sky got back.

The last note simply said

_Merry Christmas, Evans. _

_James x_

Lily smiled at that. She wasn't quite sure why, but it was just so utterly James that she couldn't help but love it. She later tucked it under her pillow with the rest of the notes. She wouldn't ever throw them away.

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**Ta da. I'm bored of lecturing people about reviews, so do whatever you want. I'm off to enjoy the tropical weather which, miracle of all miracles, has decided to land in _Cornwall_, of all places. Cheerio!**


	12. Short, containing squeals of joy

**Disclaimer: I bet if I owned harry potter my life wouldn't suck so mcuh.**

**Life sucks, and don't I know it. This chapter is ultra short, sorry, but more is to come! So, to anyone who happens to still be reading this, enjoy! **

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Sky laughed her head off. Lola smiled knowingly and hummed Clair de Lune. Lily stared at them, open-mouthed, in astonishment.

"What's so funny?!" she demanded of Sky, dismissing Lola's odd behaviour as the norm.

"I told you so!" Sky managed to choke out.

"You_ what?_"

"I told you that you loved him! I knew you were supposed to be with him! I_ knew_ it!"

Lily didn't know what to do, so she blushed, scowled, squealed and hugged Lola all at once, just to be sure.

"I thought you hated him," Lola remarked idly as Sky's fits of laughter began subsiding.

"Yeah, yeah! Tell us, what happened?!" Sky squealed, sitting up on the bed in a way that showed she was eager for gossip. "Should we get popcorn? Or is it a shorter story than that?"

"There is no story," Lily admitted. "I just sort of gradually started liking him. And by the time I realised, there wasn't anything I could do about it."

Sky looked slightly disappointed, but was determined not to let the small obstacle of there being nothing to say stop her from getting Lily talking.

"Well, what do you like about him? His eyes? He has _really_ nice eyes. Or his hair? Oh, I_ bet_ it's his hair!"

"It's both," Lily admitted with a shy smile. "His eyes are so gorgeous; I could stare into them for hours, just like in the movies. And his hair as well. I mean, I know I used to say I hated it, but I don't. It's so gorgeous and black and messy. And he's so _funny_. And really kind, as well, and sweet, and protective, and clever. And whenever I'm around him it feels so natural; I can talk to him about anything…"

And so it continued. Sky was happy to prompt every time there was a lull in the conversation, but Lily barely needed it; she was glad to get it all finally off her chest, not to mention the fact that gushing to your best friends about a boy was a right of passage she had only been on the receiving end of before, first with Sky's many conquests, and then with Lola's foreign beau who they'd never met. And so, it was almost an hour later that Lily finally stopped talking with a love-struck sigh, revelling in the fact that she finally knew why there was so much fuss about love.

"Lets go down to dinner," Sky suggested once they had talked James Potter to death. "I'm starved."

The other two readily agreed and they began the long walk to the Great Hall. The subject of James Potter was still lingering in the air, but nobody mentioned him, because there wasn't anything left to say. However, he was on all their minds.

Sky's inner monologue was mostly chanting 'I _knew_ it, I _knew_ it! Lily and James, sitting in a tree…"

Lola was thinking how sweet it was; and how Lily never could have married someone blonde, as their hair would clash awfully. She also considered her own boyfriend, and wished he was at Hogwarts. The letters they wrote were all very well and good, but he didn't write very good English so they didn't say much. He had very expressive eyes, though, and she liked talking to him face to face because of that.

Lily was simply incapable of thinking of anything else; in addition to other things, she wondered if he would be at dinner and assumed yes, as he was a teenage boy, and in general they rarely missed a meal.

"I'm _soooo_ hungry!" Sky exclaimed as they reached the entrance hall. "I could eat a Hippogriff and still have room for cake!"

Lily smiled and they entered the Great Hall, breathing in the delicious scent of the work of a hundred house-elves.

They were just approaching the Gryffindor table when Lily stopped dead in her tracks.

"Lily? What's -" Sky started to ask, before she spotted what Lily had. "Oh."

Lily stayed frozen only a second longer, before she turned and fled from the Hall as fast as she could, silent tears flying behind her.

Lola, for once, reacted first and chased after her. Sky followed a split second later, after deciding that there would be plenty of times to punch James Potter in the face and now was not the best one; her first reason being that Lily needed her to be calm and tell her it would be all right, not exhibiting behaviour that clearly stated it would not. Her second reason was slightly more technical, though no less true; it might be a little hard to reach his face, as Mary MacDonald was currently attached to it.

**!""£££$$$$%%%%%^^^^^^&&&&&&&********((((((((())))))))))**

**Ugh, I know it was horrible, sorry! I blame school; I have _no_ free time, no energy, no inspiration. Every time my maths teacher says the words 'Quadratic Equation' I feel my soul die a little bit more. The best thing that's happened to me since June is tripping over Alan Rickman at the theatre in London. That was pretty awesome. But other than that... **

**Anyway, feel free to yell at me in a review, or whatever.**


	13. Ultrashort and notsosweet

"Lily? Lily? _LILY!?_"

It had been an hour, and Lily was still locked in the bathroom.

"Come on Lily, let us in," Sky pleaded.

"Sky'll go and hit them for you," Lola promised. "She'll go right now if you just let us in for a second."

"Lily, I know you're upset, but just let us in so we can talk about this! Or not, we don't have to. We can just sit with you, if you want?"

Still silence.

"Alright," said Lola dejectedly. "We didn't want to do this Lily, but you may need to stand back. BOMBARDA!"

The door flew open to reveal Lily Evans curled up in a foetal position on the floor, with her curls muffling her sobs.

"I'm going right now," Sky growled angrily. "Lola, get her to some chocolate."

Then she stormed away to find a couple of human punch bags.


	14. Vomiting and Bad News

**DISCLAIMER: I suck too much to own Harry Potter. **

**Sorry. I know I suck. I really don't care, though. So, I've given you two chapters to make up for it. Even though this story is rubbish anyway, and I'm pretty sure there are about 5 people reading it. Look out for my new, hopefully better, story, which I'll be posting in a few days.**

**:::**

A month later Lola awoke to the sounds of someone getting sick in the bathroom. She swung her legs out of bed and, humming an unidentifiable tune to herself, went to see who was ill this time; there had been a stomach flu going around a few weeks before. She was surprised to see Sky lying on the floor, groaning, with Nadia holding her hair back. She didn't know why she was surprised; Sky got sick as much as anyone else did.

Nadia left with a sympathetic grimace. Lola poured Sky a glass of water and sat it down next to her.

"Are you OK?" she asked sympathetically.

"I feel like crap on toast," Sky said, her voice cracking.

"Bad luck," she said, sitting down behind Sky and plaiting her hair. "In case there's no-one to hold it back," she explained as she worked.

Neither of them went to class that morning. Someone told Lily, and at lunch time she came and sat with them, saying she had copied out her notes from all the classes they had missed. By this point Sky was sat up, and her face was back to its normal colour.

"I don't feel too bad anymore," she told them. "Actually, I'm hungry."

Lily, who knew what to do in these sorts of situations, went to the kitchen and got her some crackers. Then she made Sky keep down a glass of water before letting her eat.

"I might come back to class this afternoon," Sky told them.

"Okay…" said Lily, uncertain.

"If I feel bad I'll leave again, but now I'm fine, and I can't miss too many classes this close to NEWTS."

Sky knew that Lily would cave as soon as she brought up exams. She got changed, brushed her teeth, and they all headed off to Potions together.

Sky seemed fine for the rest of the day. However, towards the evening she started looking a little unhealthy, and Lola was once again woken by the sounds of her chucking up into the toilet.

The next day, when it happened again, Lola and Lily dragged Sky to the Hospital Wing. Sky had refused it the first two days, saying it was just a bug and she'd be fine. But it was two against one, and the one was weak from not eating, so they won.

Sky was probably one of the few people who wouldn't be at all ashamed of walking through the castle in her Pyjamas, which was lucky. Even though her pyjamas consisted of a tiny pair of shorts and a vest top with a picture of Dumbledore on the front, and everyone could see. It was obvious that she was ill, and that Lily and Lola were dragging her to the Hospital Wing, but that didn't stop a few select individuals (including Sirius and James) from wolf-whistling at her.

-_-_-_-_-

"It's not the same virus that was going around before," concluded the matron.

"What is it then?" asked Sky. She was sat, still in her pyjamas, on a bed in the hospital wing. Her friends were sat either side of her, one attentive and concerned, and the other away with the fairies.

"I'll have to take a few more tests," replied the nurse. "Now you two, out. I don't want you disturbing my patient, or catching whatever she's got. Go on! Out!"

-_-_-_-_-

After lessons that day, Lola was walking back to the dormitory with a dreamy look on her face. She pushed the door open and wandered in, lost in her own little world. It took her a few moments to see that she wasn't alone. Sky was sat on her bed with her back to her. But the way she was sat was weird. It wasn't her usual shoulders-back-head-high-lounge. She was hunched forwards and… shaking?

"Sky?" Lola asked uncertainly. Sky's head whipped around and Lola had to stifle a gasp.

Sky's eyes were red and puffy. Her glasses were propped up on her head, and she had mascara tear-tracks running all the way down her face. Her hair was messy and some of it was stuck to her chapped lips. When she saw Lola she scrambled off the bed and threw herself into Lola's arms, sobbing.

Lola couldn't get her mind around what had happened. Sky, ever casual, never shocked. Sky who simply took everything in her stride. She was breaking down, sobbing, hunched over in Lola's arms (because Lola was quite a bit shorter than Sky).

"Sky" Lola said, "What's the matter?!?!"

Sky couldn't talk. Lola, who had always been the vulnerable, bumbling one of the group, was far out of her depth. She was used to being taken care of, not taking care of people.

"Shush," she said, as soothingly as she could. "Let's get you to Lily."

-_-_-_-_-

Lily took control, as Lola knew she would.

"Get her on my bed," she ordered. Lola was more than happy to have the situation taken out of her hands, and obeyed the orders. Lily bustled around, finding a big wad of tissues, a glass of water, a comb, and a wet flannel. She put some calming music on quietly in the background, and then sat down on the bed next to a still sobbing Sky.

Very gently she wiped the make up off Sky's face. Then she brushed soothingly through her hair with a comb, so that it lay flat again. She took off her glasses and put them on the bed side table, and then handed her a tissue. The tears were still flowing, but she seemed marginally calmer.

"Sky," Lily said quietly and soothingly. "what's happened?"

"I-I'm o-only sev-sev'nteen!" Sky hiccupped, breaking down into sobs again.

"I know, I know," whispered Lily, smoothing her hair. "But what happened? Did somebody die?"

"N-no!" exclaimed Sky. "T-the O-Op-Opposite!"

Lola was still confused, but Lily was struck by an idea. An absurd idea, really, but…

"Sky," she asked tentatively. "Are you… well… Sky, are you pregnant?"

Sky seemed unable to cry any more tears, but she still sobbed dryly as she nodded.

"Oh my god!"

"I-I k-kn-ow!" she said. "I'm o-only se-seventeen! This wasn't meant t-to _happen _yet!"

"Oh my god!"

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

"Wait!" said Lily suddenly, throwing up her hands. "Is it… Is it Sirius'?!?!"

"I…" Sky bit her damp lip. "I'm, err, n-not sure."

"I don't understand," Lola stated, her brows furrowing together.

"W-well, there was S-Sirius. But in t-the holidays there was," she gulped. "a m-muggle who I u-used to date. W-we had a thi-thing. And I d-don't _know_!"

She dissolved into a fresh wave of tears, and this time they couldn't calm her down.

In the end the three of them fell asleep on Lily's bed, Sky in tears and the other two in shock. The next morning Lily awoke with a crick in her neck, because she had slept sitting up with Skys head in her lap. Lola had slept sideways on the bed with her head dangling off the edge, but when Lily awoke she was sat up, stroking Sky's legs dizzily. Sky wasn't crying anymore, but she looked terrible.

"What am I going to do?" she whispered after an immeasurable amount of time.

"I don't know Sky, I don't know," Lily replied quietly.

"Two pills and it's gone, right?" said Sky hoarsely. "But I don't think I could do that."

"No, you couldn't."

"You could look at adoption?" Lola said uncertainly, biting her lip.

"No, I… that would just be too hard and… unfair on my little mistake," Sky whispered back.

"So… I guess you just made your choice, then."

"Yeah, I… I guess I did."

They sat there for another hour, silently, trying to get their heads around the concept of a baby. A little baby with blue hair and pink cheeks which may or may not be a half blood, and which may or may not grow up without a father. It was enough to get Lily's mind off her own problems, such as the fact that she had been avoiding James for a month, and he was still going out with Mary. But eventually her proactive side kicked in. She set herself about getting cleaned up, brushing all of their hair and getting them all into a new set of clothes. Then she dragged Sky down to McGonagall's office.

She was teaching a class when they arrived. Fourth year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. But Lily took charge, knocked on the door and told her that they were having a crisis, and it couldn't wait.

"Alright, what is such a dire emergency that it couldn't possibly wait for half an hour?" asked the professor once they were seated in her office.

"Well," began Lily, glancing at Sky. "It's really Sky's thing, but I don't think she's in any state to talk about it at the moment."

Sky shook her head, looking pale.

"It's alright Sky," said Lola, rubbing her arm softly.

"Spit it out then," Professor McGonagall said impatiently. "I've got a class waiting."

"Sky is… well, she's pregnant. And she's keeping the baby. We were just wondering about what the schools policy was on… um… _that_."

That wasn't what the Professor had been expecting. It was clear in her expression. It was a few moments before she could speak, and it took a _lot_ to surprise Minerva McGonagall.

"And who, may I ask, is the father?" she stammered after a minute.

"We don't know," replied Lola. This just shocked her more. It was at least two minutes before she spoke again.

"I will have to take this up with Professor Dumbledore," she said eventually, her voice unnaturally even. "The school has never had to deal with circumstances like _this_ before. But what, if you had the choice, would be an ideal situation?"

"Well," Sky stammered. "I have to keep the baby I… I don't really have another option. And it's not due until the summer holidays so I guess… I would like to stay and finish Hogwarts fat."

Lily and Lola smiled at the last sentence. That was the Sky they loved to bits and pieces.

**Well, there you have it. Not what you expected? More L/J next chapter, but I just wanted to post this before I forgot about it or accidentally confused myself with a different stroy line that didn't fit (it wouldn't be the first time). Anyway, review or die.**

**X's and O's, from Maja.**


	15. Paperclips and Predictions

**DISCLAIMER: Guess.**

**As you may have realised, I have lost passion for this story. I _will_ finish it, but dont expect very regular updates. Sorry, five people.**

As the weeks flew by, Sky was doing an impressive job of avoiding Sirius. Lily tried to broach the subject several times when they were eating in the kitchens, but chickened out when she remembered how moody her aunt had been when she was pregnant.

"You have to tell him," Lily said eventually, dusting herself off after being pulled behind yet another suit of armour. "He's going to notice soon enough; you're starting to show. And he'll think it's definitely his if you don't explain. He can't be mad. It's not like you two were anywhere near exclusive."

"It's Sirius, he might not notice," Sky reasoned. "And if he does, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

"Sky…"

"Fine, but you two have to come with me. There's no way I'm telling him without moral support. And can one of you bring a camera; I want a picture of his face. It should be golden."

And that's how, at 7 pm that evening, Sky, Lily and Lola found lurking themselves in the entrance to the Heads common room. Sky was trying to stall ('Oh, Lily, I forgot to do the Charms essay.' 'Lola, can you teach me how to do yoga?') but Lily and Lola dragged her in eventually.

Sirius, James and Remus were engaged in a heated game of exploding snap. Just as Sirius was proclaimed the triumphant winner, Lily and Lola walked into his vision, dragging a screaming Sky behind them.

"Sky, stop sulking and spit it out," said Lily once they were stood in front of the curious Marauders. She was trying very hard to not hyperventilate at being this close to James, and deliberately stared at Sky and nothing else. Sky pouted, but in her eyes there was the faintest trace of fear. She didn't speak.

"Sky has something she would like to tell Sirius," said Lola. "Now tell him, Sky, or next time I cut your hair I won't be so careful."

The glint in Lola's eyes made Sky gulp. Slowly she opened her mouth, but it was a moment before anything came.

"There's a 50/50 chance you're going to be a father," she said slowly, her voice a little higher than normal.

The boys froze, eyes wide.

"W-what?" Sirius stammered after a moment.

"I'm pregnant. And it might be yours. Or it might be this muggle who lives near me at home. I'm not sure. I can get the tests done when it's born, but that won't be for another seven or eight months. Sorry."

There was silence for a long time. Then Sirius spoke.

"You're… _pregnant?_ As in having a baby?"

"Yep. I'm pregnant. With a baby."

There was silence. A minute, maybe two, passed.

"Do you… Do you have to get the tests done? I mean, do you really want to know, or could you just maybe pretend that it's not mine?"

"Great!" said Sky quickly, huge look of relief spreading over her face. "I mean, I don't _want _anything from you. I know you're not ready to be a dad. I'm not ready to be a mum by a long way, but I haven't been given a choice. I'm not even going to tell the other guy, but because I go to school with you and everything Lily said I had to tell you because you'd notice. Great, well, we're gonna go now. Bye!"

And with that she dragged Lily and Lola away, feeling as though it couldn't have gone better.

That night they ate dinner in the kitchens again, but only because the smell of all the food in the hall was making Sky nauseous. The only thing that she could stand the smell of was spaghetti, so they were all eating that. Lily was secretly glad, as she didn't think she could stand seeing James again. Lola, who didn't particularly love spaghetti but who did love her friend very much, was busy making hers into shapes.

"Hey look, I made it look like a paper clip!" she exclaimed after a few minutes of silence.

"Shut up and eat," Sky grumbled, helping herself to seconds. Lola obediently slurped down her artwork, grimacing when Sky had her back turned.

The next day, Lily and Lola were chatting lightly in the courtyard about everything but Sky and her mood swings. After a few minutes Sky joined them.

"Screw this baby," said Sky as a way of greeting, sitting down next to Lola, "I can't do anything. I can't ride a broomstick. I can't even have butterbeer. And yet McGonagall says I still have to do all my homework. Why can't homework be bad for the stupid mistake"

"That's just the way things are Sky. It's our NEWT year. You need to study-"

Sky and Lola both pretended to fall asleep.

"Oh, screw you," said Lily over the top of Sky's unnecessarily loud 'snores'.

"Anyway, " said Sky, after she had 'woken up', "I sorted all of that out with Dumbledore and Minnie, so it really doesn't matter anymore."

"I still can't believe you're pregnant. It just seems so weird," said Lola with amazement.

"Think how I feel. In seven months I'm going to be a mum. I keep dreaming about accidentally killing the little mistake because I don't have the faintest clue what I'm doing."

Her laugh was light but her eyes betrayed the true concern she felt.

"Don't worry Sky," said Lily soothingly. "We'll be with you the whole time. Even after Hogwarts."

"While we're on the subject," said Sky. "Since I don't actually know who the dad is, you two are my birthing partners. I told the hospital and they said that was fine."

Lily paled slightly, but didn't let Sky see. She had a huge phobia of blood and pain, and she knew that birth involved a lot of both those things. She really hadn't thought too much about the whole birth aspect of Sky's pregnancy; she'd been having trouble getting her head around it at all. But surely if Lola could eat an entire bowl of spaghetti which she hated then Lily could put up with a few hours of screaming. It would be fine.

Lola was thinking about something else entirely. She was, in fact, thinking about three things.

First of all, she was thinking about the person who was normally in the delivery room; the father. The parent. If her and Lily were in there with Sky, and with her for the entire pregnancy and afterwards, then that would kind of make them like honorary parents of Sky's little mistake, wouldn't it.

Secondly she was thinking about the horrible spaghetti she had eaten. Before she ate it she had made it into the exact shape of a paper clip. She had actually been quite proud of it.

And finally, she was remembering something. Something which hadn't been too long ago, and was still crystal clear in her memory. Sky's voice was running over and over in her head, like a broken record.

'_You will eat a paperclip and soon find yourself a parent'_

It looked like Sky's predictions weren't just coincidence after all.

**DUNDUNDUN! Or not. Reviews make my day literally, and reassure me that I maybe do have readers.**


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